Liberty is being free from the things we don't like in order to be slaves of the things we do like.--Ernest Benn

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Memorial Day

We're supposed to be defending the Club Memorial Day Race Trophy which we unexpectedly won last year. Things are not looking up for this 2010 event.

Some Members got it into their heads that there ought to be an all-club cruise to the island 'to bring everyone together', and that a race back would ensue. On this national holiday, I'm not going to lapse into my anti-cruising harangue. Not the point.

The point is, by scheduling a club cruise, my crew has been sucked off the boat. Two said they thought the cruise meant there would no race to day and they went off and made other plans: to wife's cousin's out of town graduation! (Give me a break!) Mainsheet Trimmer said he was going to do the one-day-cruise/fake-race and join us if he got back in time (Give me another break!)

Well, I can enjoy a Schadenfreude moment. The late-late word is that some forecasts have it that it's going to honk like snot this weekend. Maybe boats in our fleet will not participate. Mainsheet Trimmer, anyways, has called to say his island ride has been cancelled. If he's in with us and it's blowing a gale, we'll be all right: the more it blows the less crew we need.

This is the day we pause to think of our troops who have made supreme sacrifices in our nation's interests and who continue to make them in missions currently misconstrued to be in our national interests.

Today, they come first. What it says on a Memorial stone in Elings Park where Doberwoman and I walk three times a week:

Sozadee CA

Sozadee is a state of mind. It was discovered (or founded) many years ago on a hot August afternoon's sail out of Newport Beach. There was no wind (at least any stronger than the current) and a burning, glaring sun. The limp sails afforded no shade. All aboard knew the outboard was questionable. The ice on the beer was melting and discussion was skirting the issue of sunstroke. Suddenly, the word "Sozadee" was uttered, the breeze returned, and all was well.

Weather

Sailing is not the Answer. Sailing is the Question. "Yes" is the answer!

Olin Stephens II

"...increasing age has brought with it a loss of agility as well as less tolerance of discomfort, and my active enjoyment of sailing has become less. Reluctantly I admit today that the important place in my life once occupied by sailing has been replaced by a computer."